The Chinese government's openness and transparency to avian influenza has greatly improved compared with the early stage of SARS

Introduction: the prevention and control of avian influenza in China has entered a new stage since avian influenza killed the Chinese people The Ministry of Health announced on November 16 that two cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 were confirmed in mainland China, and the national prevention and control of avian influenza has been strengthened This is the first confirmed human case of avian influenza in mainland China In May 1997, a child died of pneumonia secondary to influenza in Hong Kong The isolated virus was identified as H5N1 strain, which is the first report of human infection with avian influenza virus Authorities believe that the release of two confirmed cases has significantly increased the risk of human infection with avian influenza in China, which also proves that the current situation of prevention and control of avian influenza in China is quite serious, marking that the prevention and control of avian influenza in China has entered a new stage since then China is focusing on the spread of the disease from birds to humans He, a nine-year-old boy from Xiangtan County, Xiangtan City, Hunan Province, and Zhou, a 24-year-old female farmer from Zongyang County, Anqing City, Anhui Province, were the two confirmed patients, Xinhua reported He was discharged from hospital on November 12, and Zhou died of respiratory failure on November 10 At the same time, the expert group of the Ministry of health also infers that he, a 12-year-old sister, may have a case of human infection with highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 However, due to the lack of accurate laboratory test evidence, it cannot be determined as a confirmed case according to the standards of the World Health organization He's epidemiological history and clinical manifestations are similar to his brother's, and he died of invalid treatment on October 17 Death quietly came to he and his brother and Zhou, previously known as "unexplained pneumonia" cases They all had contact with dead birds before the onset of the disease On November 7, an expert from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and prevention told the media that the samples of serum and throat swab samples from he, Hunan Province, were being tested by a virus Institute of the Ministry of health Some of the results showed that H1, H3 and H5 viruses were all positive, and other tests were still in progress Remarkably, this is not the same as the previous negative test results of Hunan CDC On November 9, a person familiar with the situation confirmed the above results to outlook Oriental weekly He revealed that this was a phased conclusion drawn by the virus on November 6, but said it was not the final conclusion "The final result will be determined on the 13th or earlier, which is a very complicated process, and we must be careful." Experts said, "generally speaking, if you die of avian influenza, the disease course is short (within two weeks), you may not find antibodies, but there should be a certain amount of virus in your body, which can be detected." The causes of death from respiratory infection are often complex and sometimes difficult to determine the main cause Suspected positive may mean that the test data (or other results indicating methods) are between negative and positive " On the other hand, H1 and H3 subtypes of influenza virus are common in the population, while H5 positive is not a good phenomenon Assuming the test results are accurate and reliable, experts are most worried about the problem of gene exchange between H5N1 virus and H1 or H3 virus when the same individual infects the same cell, resulting in a new H5N1 virus, which may be prevalent in the population It is understood that for He Mou, who was cremated on the day of death on October 17, the medical staff only collected one acute serum, and it was on the sixth day of the onset of the disease, the throat swab specimen was not obtained, and the lung tissue specimen was not collected after the patient died The opinions of experts interviewed by Oriental Outlook and relevant heads of the World Health Organization are as follows: it is difficult to make a clear conclusion on the case only based on the negative test results of an acute serum Therefore, in fact, up to now, it is impossible to find the real murderer of he It can only be considered as "a case that may infect human with highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1" The lesson of SARS revealed by the news shows that the speed of information transmission is inversely proportional to the speed of virus transmission That is to say, the slower the channels of information public transmission are, the faster the virus spreads, and the greater the scope of the epidemic Hu Shuli, editor in chief of Caijing magazine, said: we have noticed that when the media sent reporters to the epidemic area for interviews, it was generally felt that the relevant officials did not cooperate This situation should be changed According to the editor in chief, the cause of death of he, a girl from Xiangtan epidemic area in Hunan Province, whether it is avian influenza or not, should be a major event After the Ministry of Health informed the Beijing Representative Office of the World Health Organization and sent people to Hunan, the official media in China had a more formal report In fact, the local area has already been full of uproar, and many media to interview is very difficult, which is regrettable Some practices of local governments and grass-roots units are obviously far from the attitude of the central government In fact, as early as October 24, the farmer daily gave a brief report on the epidemic situation in Hunan Province However, due to the nature of its industry newspaper, the audience is limited, and the Internet is not available at the same time, so few people know the news Sensitive Hong Kong media reported what the Ministry of health later called "unexplained pneumonia" cases that did not rule out the possibility of avian influenza virus On October 27, Hong Kong media reported the death of he and published photos of his brother-in-law Since then, Reuters and other overseas media have followed up Hong Kong media reports have made subtle changes in the situation of Xiangtan epidemic area Bei Hanwei, who's chief representative in China, said they learned about the situation of girls in Hunan on the morning of October 27 They immediately called the Ministry of health of China, hoping to get information and materials about the dead girls [NextPage] then Chen Xianyi, director of the emergency office of the Ministry of health, confirmed that it was on October 27 that the Department of health of Hunan Province reported two cases of he's brother and sister to the Ministry of health More than 10 journalists from Hong Kong and other places came to Hunan children's Hospital on the morning of the 28th Some of them entered the ward of he and took photos On the afternoon of October 28, Chen Xianyi, director of the emergency response office of the Ministry of health, announced he's death at a press conference while Hong Kong reporters were squatting in Hunan children's hospital However, the Ministry of health determined the cause of he's brother and sister as "pneumonia of unknown cause" After Hong Kong media reported he's death, a new change in the epidemic area was that Xiangtan police put up a new warning sign at the first checkpoint leading to the epidemic area, one of which said, "for your health and safety, all journalists from overseas media are not allowed to enter." The police began questioning passengers in the taxi who looked like reporters On November 16, the Ministry of health released to the outside world the news that China has confirmed human infection with avian influenza for the first time At that time, Xinhua News Agency reporters could not attend the meal and kept waiting for the news by the telephone At 19:50, five minutes after the news was confirmed, Xinhua News Agency broadcast the first news flash, less than 10 minutes, the associated press, Reuters, AFP, Kyodo News Agency and "Central News Agency" broadcast the news from China Later, the Chinese media, ahead of the foreign media, made an exclusive interview with experts from the Ministry of agriculture, the Ministry of health and the World Health Organization and made a detailed report The mechanism of information transparency is being explored However, it should be noted that there has been a great progress compared with the situation that SARS was regarded as "confidential" at the beginning of 2003 A Western resident in Beijing said that if China's "first report of human infection cases" is of symbolic significance, it is more a reflection of the Chinese government's open and transparent attitude towards the bird flu epidemic and serious international cooperation actions At the end of October, the Ministry of health and the Ministry of agriculture denied that human cases of infection occurred, which is likely to be the reason for the laboratory testing technology at that time, rather than intentionally concealing, the person said Roy weidil, spokesman of the World Health Organization in China, said that in response to the invitation of the Ministry of health of China, "the World Health Organization has provided certain technical advice and support" A WHO Expert Group also concluded a four-day field survey in Hunan Province on November 17 He praised the Chinese government for having taken a series of strong prevention and control actions in politics, economy, society and science and technology, as well as making every avian influenza epidemic public to relevant international institutions and the public He believed that "regular and open information exchange is the key for the international community to understand China's avian influenza epidemic in real time" At present, avian influenza has killed at least 150 million birds in the world, killed 65 people, and caused direct economic losses of up to 10 billion US dollars, with the widest coverage in history According to the world bank, if there is an outbreak of bird flu, global economic growth will slow down by two percentage points, equivalent to a loss of 800 billion US dollars According to public opinion, China, which has 20% of the world's population and 20% of its poultry, is an important position in the global fight against highly pathogenic avian influenza Two and a half years ago, when a fierce battle broke out in China, Premier Wen Jiabao was on the front line of the epidemic In Beijing and Guangzhou, where the situation was dangerous, the Premier gave the public confidence Two and a half years later, the same prime minister rushed to Liaoning, another outbreak area of avian influenza in China 1100 chickens in two villages in Fuxin and Jinzhou, Liaoning Province, died of the virus, and 500000 poultry were killed within three kilometers around the two epidemic areas Since late October, more than 10 million poultry have been killed in the epidemic area of Heishan County, Liaoning Province All the information shows that when the premier of the State Council is on the front line, the bird flu epidemic in China is not simple! When outlook Oriental weekly conducted an interview on the global influenza pandemic in September, some interviewees joked that the move was too "prepared for the rainy day" Now, the most optimistic estimate also uses war to describe "a vicious war is inevitable" In Liaoning, Premier Wen reminded his subordinates that the epidemic has not been completely controlled and there is still a risk of spreading On November 7, Yin Chengjie, Vice Minister of agriculture of the people's Republic of China, revealed that there have been seven outbreaks of avian influenza in China since this year when he inspected the prevention and control of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Hebei Province In a report sent to the website of the world organization for animal health, China's Ministry of Agriculture said that the new wave of bird flu in China occurred on October 26, the fourth outbreak in three weeks Around the world, the fight against avian influenza is also in full swing In addition to Oceania and Africa, bird flu has already erupted in all continents of the world However, many experts are worried that with the current situation, bird flu is likely to be introduced into Africa when migratory birds spend the winter, which is undoubtedly the weakest link in the human defense system Huang Jianshi, a professor at China Union Medical University and a famous epidemiologist, told outlook Oriental weekly that the most terrible thing is to transform the influenza that spreads between adults If it is not controlled in time, the consequences will be very serious At that time, it will really declare a war.